they fet a high value, and which indeed gave them a very
comfortable appearance in the cold weather that now began
to be felt. Many of their cloaks,, made of the fibres
of the New Zeeland flag (phormium),. were new,, and had elegant
borders, very fymmetrically wrought in red, black,
and white g fo that they might have palled for the work
of a much more polilhed nation *. The black is fo
ftrongly fixed upon their fluffs, that it defetves the attention
of our manufacturers, who greatly want a lading:
dye of that colour on vegetable productions ^ but the little
progrefs we could make in their language, rendered it im-
poflible to gain intelligence from them on this point.
Their cloaks are fquare pieces, of which two corners were
fattened on the breaft by firings, and ftuck together by a
bodkin of bone, whalebone, or green jadde. A belt of a
fort of clofe matting of grafs, confined the lower extremities
of their cloak to their loins, beyond which it extended
at leaft to the middle of, the thigh, and fometimes to the
mid-leg. Notwithftanding this fuperiority over the natives
of Queen Charlotte’s Sound, they refembled them perfectly
in their uncleanlinefs, and fwarms of vermin marched
about in their cloaths. Their- hair was drefled in the
falhion of the country tied on the crown, greafed, and
ftuck with white feathers ; and feveral of them had large
combs, of fome cetaceous animal’s bone, ftuck uptight juft
* See Hawkefworth, vol. I l l ,
behind
^behind the bunch of hair on the head. Many of them
were ftrongly carved with fpirals in the face; feveral
had painted it with red ochre and oil, and were always
much pleafed when we laid fome vermilion on their
'cheeks. We likewife faw fome little calabafhes among
them, neatly carved, in which they kept fome ftinking o il;
but whether it was animal or vegetable I could never
-learn. All their tools were very elegantly carved, and
made with great attention. They fold us a hatchet, of
which the blade was of the finefl: green jadde, and the
handle curioufly ornamented with fretwork. They alfo
-brought fome mufical inftruments, among which was a
trumpet, or tube of wood, about four feet long, and pretty
ftrait; its fmall mouth was not above two inches, and
the other not above five in diameter; it made a very uncouth
kind of braying, for they always founded the fame
note, though a performer on the French horn might perhaps
be able to bring fome better mufic out of it. Another
trumpet was made of a large whelk, (murex tritonis,)
mounted with wood, curioufly carved, and pierced at the
point where the mouth was applied ; a hideous bellowing
was all the found that could be procured out of this in-
ftrument. The third went by the name of a flute among
our people, and was a hollow tube, wideft about the mid-
dje, where it had a large opening, as well as another at
each end. This and the firft trumpet were both made of
G g a two
I
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